It was cold, dark and raining hard on this dreary night. Lights seemed to fight to conquer the inky darkness that permeated everywhere. Thunder rolled ominously, and the grim atmosphere was interrupted for a split second by a flash of lightning in the distance. The people huddled in their homes, fires lit with the hope that the small pieces of light and warmth would drive back the storm.

Two rapid-fire bolts of lightning revealed the first extraordinary event in this otherwise ordinary time. The first lightning bolt showed nothing, but the second, only a split second later, showed a figure wreathed in a dark cloak standing in the middle of the street where nothing had stirred. The figure stood there, slightly hunched, the cloak heaving slightly with deep breaths.

The figure was not exceptionally tall, but not short either. Small wisps of silvery hair hung limply from the hood, wet with sweat. The figure was slim, save for an irregular hump on the right side of it’s back that extended all the way down to the back of one leg. It’s right shoulder was hunched higher than the other, giving the figure the look of a hunchback.

Under the dark hood, a single, red lens flashed with the nearby lightning. It shrank slightly, a light behind the lens glowing dimly, giving the eye a demonic appearance. Orienting itself, the figure began walking smoothly down the street. Because of the long cloak that swirled around it’s feet, one could have sworn the figure wasn’t walking so much as gliding down the street.

The figure approached a rather large house at the end of the street, coming to a stop outside the iron gate that was there to keep regular folk out.

Lightning flashed, and the figure was suddenly inside the gate. Thunder cracked loudly, sounding more like a tree being toppled by a sudden hurricane. The figure didn’t so much as flinch, merely starting to glide again towards the front door of the house. The lights from inside cast irregular shadows around the figure, but none seemed to be able to permeate the shadow of it’s hood, other than the ever-changing red lens underneath.

There was a sudden flurry of activity inside the house. Pounding footsteps, shouts and other sounds of panic inside alerted the figure. The figure paused, looking upwards indicated only by a slight tilt in the figure’s hood. It waited for a few seconds, before disappearing without a trace. No noise, no flash, one second the figure was there, the next, it wasn’t.

Half a second later, all of the lights in the house went out, eliciting several screams of surprise from inside. The figure reappeared in the same manner inside the front door, the glow from it’s red eye being the only light in the house. Another furry of activity began, this time from the figure and from the inhabitants. The inhabitants, however, were running blindly, screaming in horror from the figure. The figure, however, moved quickly, efficiently, and flawlessly. It jumped, landing on the dinner table, and drew off it’s cloak. A flash of lightning at that moment showed the inhabitants of the house exactly what had invaded their house.

A slim, pale girl with shoulder-length silver hair pulled back in a ponytail stood there, dressed in dark black pants that were tight around her waist, but loose around her ankles. Dark boots protruded from under the flared edges of the pants. From the waist down, the girl looked perfectly normal. Waist up was a different story.

The girl was topless, her bare skin exposed for all the inhabitants to see. A dark tattoo of a dragon curved gently around her left breast. None of them, however, were focused on that fact, they were to busy noticing the implanted fifth limb that protruded from the right side of her back. A long row of metal spikes were sunk into her spine, dark ringed scars around each peg. The pegs were attached to a dark metal plate that wrapped around to under her arm, and curved over her right breast. A single metal spike sunk into her sternum was attached to this protrusion. The dragon tattoo’s mouth was clamped around the peg, as though it had forced the peg into place.

Out of the girl’s shoulder blade, or where it would be if not for the metal plate that was sunk into her back, protruded a thick metal pipe, which morphed itself into a strange, metallic wing. Out of her shoulder came a lump of metal, from which several wires sprang from, leading back into the nape of her neck. Metal plates lined her arm down to the back of her hand, where it split into a skeletal hand that covered the back of her hand.

The metal plates lined up her neck, up the side of her head, and over her ear, then swelled and covered her right eye. While the eye was visible underneath the dark red lens, it was ringed by metal plates. Scar tissue ringed her entire metal coverings.

To most who saw her, she was a hideous science experiment gone wrong.
To those who made her this way, she was perfect.
To one in the house, she was death.

The metal wing snapped outwards, and the girl jumped and glided faster than their eyes could follow towards an older man dressed in a tuxedo. Before he could react, the metal wing had folded it’s metallic webbing into itself, flexed over her shoulder, and shot into the man’s chest, killing him instantly as the girl landed in a crouch in front of him.

“Name: Mr. Toriyama. Designation: Undercover drug lord and murderer of fifty-six innocents on a train in France. Status: Terminated.” The girl stood, and the wing withdrew sharply from the man’s chest, dripping blood. The man crumpled to the ground, eyes glazed. The girl turned towards the other occupants of the room, who had frozen in shock.

“Names: Mr. and Mrs. Yuminiko. Designations: Innocents. Status: Alive.” The girl blinked, then turned away from them, walking slowly towards the table, gathering the dropped cloak in her bare arms. “Sorry for the intrusion. Please disregard what you have seen here. Police are on the way, they will not harm you. Good night.” The girl bowed, then disappeared yet again, leaving the couple in stunned silence. Even as they stood there, sirens could be heard in the distance.

The girl reappeared on the top of a telephone pole outside the house, watching quietly as the police cars pulled up in front of the mansion. She watched as the lights inside the house turned on again, and the gate swung open as several cops rammed it open. She wrapped the cloak around herself once more, standing up straight as her wing folded to hide. Suddenly, a spotlight shone from one of the police cars at her.

“Get down from there! You are under arrest!” The girl didn’t so much as twitch, but looked up into the night sky. A single flash of lightning, and she had disappeared once again...